Air rifle ‘taken from dump’

by r33irby

Ross Irby
Reporter
Reporter Ross Irby has wander-lust mixed with a sense of adventure, spending way too many years roaming about Australia, its back roads and off-shore foreign lands.
Enjoys a yarn, story telling and tales, along with curiosity to find out about the lives and (mis)adventures of others.
An off-beat sense of humour, not taking it all too seriously, along with big doses of flexibility/adaptability whatever the situation is the best way to go.
You have to have the life experiences to have empathy...

A FORMER security officer wanted to do the right thing when she grabbed an air rifle found discarded in a bin at a dump and took it home.

Rossalyn Pershouse intended to hand the weapon in but instead kept it beneath her bed.

When police went to a South Mackay house following a disturbance they were told Pershouse had an unregistered firearm under her bed.

Pershouse, 31, pleaded guilty in Mackay Magistrates Court to unlawful possession of a weapon, an air rifle, on June 16 this year.

Prosecutor James Grehan said police had spoken to Pershouse at the house and because she did not hold a firearm licence officers had seized the rifle found under the bed.

Mr Grehan said the offender told police she found the rifle at the dump and did not know if it worked.

Defence lawyer Antionette Morton said her client was a former security officer who had been moving into Mackay from Seaforth and found the rifle in a bin and removed it because she knew it should not be there. "She put a trigger lock on it even though she was not sure if it worked," Ms Morton said.

Magistrate Ross Risson fined Pershouse $300 and did not record a conviction. She was ordered to do 14 hours of unpaid community service work.